Some developments on the class action suit filed against Facebook over alleged privacy violations in Europe. Europe vs. Facebook, the group leading the suit now with 25,000 claimants in tow, has had its first hearing set for April 9, in a court in Vienna, marking the first time Facebook will appear in court over the case.

The class action covers a number of areas ranging from data use policy under EU law to PRISM surveillance support and the unlawful introduction of “Graph Search.” (The full list is below.) According to Europe vs. Facebook, the social network refutes the claims, arguing that the lawsuit is inadmissible because it cannot be sued by its users.

The purpose of the April 9 hearing is for the court to decide whether Facebook has valid objections about the admissibility of the lawsuit.

Contacted for a response, Facebook says it has nothing more to add right now.

A chef has a request to bake a carrot cake. The carrots were previously picked from the ground, cleaned, packaged, and transported to the grocery store. The carrots are purchased by a chef at the store to be shredded, mixed with other ingredients, and baked into the cake. The carrots could also be sliced for a salad. It is the chef’s knowledge, skill, and wisdom that determines how well the ingredients are made into a cake.

The analogy is that GEOINT data are previously collected (picked), inconsistencies removed (cleaned), structured (packaged), and distributed (transported). The analyst acquires the data from a warehouse (grocery store), subsets the data (shreds the carrots), and combines (mixes) it with other information to create insights (the cake). The same data might be used for other analytic purposes (making a salad). It is the analyst’s (bakers) knowledge, skill, and wisdom that determines how well the information are converted into insights.